Coliseum

June 12 • Ballroom at the Taft Theatre

The music video for Coliseum’s “Bad Will” — one of many addictively visceral tracks on the band’s just-released fourth album, Sister Faith
— is shot in vérité-style black and white as the trio plays an
impromptu gig in front of a Louisville, Ky., tattoo shop. In it,
imposing frontman Ryan Patterson bellows on about a variety of things he
hates while he simultaneously spits out lacerating guitar riffs that
would have Motörhead double-taking in recognition. It’s not long before
the cops show up to investigate the unholy raucous, and the video ends
with Patterson being led off in handcuffs, no doubt charged with
disturbing the peace.

It’s a charge Patterson and his revolving bandmates
(current members include bassist Kayhan Vaziri and drummer Carter
Wilson) have likely been yielding since Coliseum thundered out of the
Louisville underground a decade ago.

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Sister Faith, recorded at
producer/former Jawbox bassist J. Robbins’ newly relocated Magpie Cage
Studios, opens with a furious one-two punch of “Disappear from Sight”
and “Last/Lost,” which brings to mind early Fugazi filtered through more
contemporary ass-kickers like Fucked Up. And it rarely comes up for air
thereafter.

“The record tackles death, love, insecurity, crumbling
relationships, thriving relationships, narratives about fear and loss,
pessimistic outburst, passion and confusion and lot of other subjects in
between,” Patterson said in a recent interview with Blow the Scene.

Yet the rousing, appropriately titled “Fuzzbang” closes
the album with what sounds something like hope. Or at least a way to
cope: “We can close our eyes and dream it all away!”

COLISEUM plays with guests Baroness Wednesday, June 12 at the Ballroom at the Taft Theatre downtown. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.